THE SALT ROAD THAT FED THE DRAGON: An Old-World Gothic Fantasy of Salt, Iron, and Hidden Debt (THE BLACK SALT CYCLE)

The salt is bleeding. The delegation is gone. And something beneath the road has begun to count.When a diplomatic delegation vanishes on the journey to a magnificent floating lake-city, the Salt Federation sends a battle-tested company to recover the missing and preserve a trade pact that could change the balance of power.But the city’s prosperity rests upon hidden roads, black-wax contracts, and scales that weigh far more than cargo. Beneath its causeways, names become property, loyalty becomes leverage, and an ancient intelligence turns every bargain toward hunger.To find the missing and prevent an alliance from becoming conquest, Edrin Ashvale and his companions must cross flooded galleries, hostile waters, lower courts, and a civilization divided between law and fear. Every proof they uncover draws them closer to the Black Salt Eye—and to the dragon waiting to collect what the road has fed it.Book One of The Black Salt Cycle, a self-contained subseries within The High Pass Chronicles.An old-world Gothic fantasy of perilous trade, buried law, hidden debt, and ordinary people refusing to be counted as cargo. Read more